Outriders

The Intel Core i5-12600KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 combination ranks 200th out of 3,710 tested combos in Outriders, placing it in the top 5.4% of all configurations. This is a formidable pairing for the looter shooter, delivering high frame rates across all resolutions. The RTX 5090, with its 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, provides overwhelming rasterization headroom, while the 10-core Alder Lake CPU ensures the GPU is consistently fed. The data shows that this combo excels at 1440p and 1080p, where it easily surpasses 144Hz thresholds, and remains highly playable at 4K with the right settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The benchmark database places this specific CPU-GPU pairing at rank 200 out of 3,710 tested combinations for Outriders, a percentile position of roughly 94.6. This indicates that only about 5% of all tested hardware pairings can outperform this setup in this specific title. The ranking reflects the synergy between the high-end Blackwell GPU and the capable 12th-generation Core i5 processor. While the CPU sits in the 79th percentile among all processors in general computing benchmarks, the GPU is in the 92nd percentile among all graphics cards, meaning the graphics card is the dominant performance driver in this pairing, pulling the combo rank upward.

The CPU’s nearest rivals in average benchmark score include the Intel Core i9-10900K (0.3% slower), the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D (0.3% slower), and the AMD Ryzen 7 6800U (0.3% slower). These sub-1% deltas show that the i5-12600KF is performing almost identically to these other processors in general compute tasks, which is notable for a mid-range chip. However, in a game like Outriders that is heavily GPU-bound at high resolutions, the CPU’s exact position among rivals matters less than its ability to avoid becoming a bottleneck. The benchmark results confirm it does not bottleneck, as evidenced by the high FPS numbers.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides a clear hierarchy of settings for this combo. At 1080p, the Ultra preset yields an average of 171 FPS, which is excellent, but the Medium preset pushes that to 215 FPS, and Low reaches 242 FPS. The 4K Ultra preset drops to 64 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for a fast-paced looter shooter. The optimal experience balances visual quality with refresh rate headroom. For 1080p and 1440p users with high refresh rate monitors (144Hz or above), the High preset is the recommended starting point, as it delivers 193 FPS and 166 FPS respectively.

At 4K, the choice is between High at 88 FPS and Medium at 117 FPS. The Medium preset is the best experience for 4K, as it maintains an average above 100 FPS while providing a frame time variance that is far smoother than the 64 FPS Ultra setting. The data indicates that the gap between High and Ultra at 4K is 24 FPS (from 88 to 64), which is a massive performance hit for diminishing visual returns. Therefore, the recommended preset for this combo is Medium at 4K and High at lower resolutions. The Low preset is unnecessary, as even at 4K it provides 161 FPS, which is overkill and sacrifices too much visual fidelity.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combo for the RTX 5090 and i5-12600KF in Outriders?

A: For the best balance of visuals and performance, use 2560x1440 with the High preset, which yields an average of 166 FPS. If you require higher frame rates, the Medium preset at 1920x1080 delivers 215 FPS. At 4K, the Medium preset is the sweet spot at 117 FPS.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K resolution?

A: The data shows playable frame rates at 4K. The High preset averages 88 FPS, Medium averages 117 FPS with a minimum of 100 FPS, and Low averages 161 FPS. The Ultra preset is the weakest at 64 FPS average.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this pairing?

A: The GPU is the dominant factor in this pairing. The RTX 5090 has a 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs, while the CPU is in the 79th percentile. The GPU’s performance headroom is so large that the CPU rarely becomes a bottleneck.

Q: How does the i5-12600KF compare to its closest rivals?

A: The i5-12600KF is within 0.3% of the Intel Core i9-10900K and the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D in average benchmark score, showing that it is a highly competitive processor for gaming workloads.

Q: What is the minimum FPS observed in the benchmark data?

A: The only minimum FPS values recorded are for the Medium preset. At 3840x2160, the minimum is 100 FPS; at 2560x1440, it is 157 FPS; and at 1920x1080, it is 183 FPS. These figures indicate strong frame pacing.

Q: Does the Ultra preset provide a worthwhile performance increase?

A: No. The Ultra preset at 1080p drops to 171 FPS from 193 FPS on High, a decrease of 22 FPS. At 4K, it drops from 88 FPS to 64 FPS. The visual difference is not worth the substantial frame rate loss.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440, 3840x2160) and four settings presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra). Starting at 1080p, the combo delivers exceptional performance. The Low preset achieves an average of 242 FPS, the Medium preset 215 FPS (with a range of 183-247 FPS), the High preset 193 FPS, and the Ultra preset 171 FPS. This shows that even at the highest quality settings, the frame rate remains well above the 144Hz refresh rate threshold, making this resolution almost trivial for the hardware.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains very high. The Low preset produces an average of 207 FPS. The Medium preset yields 184 FPS on average, with a documented range of 157 to 212 FPS. The High preset sees a drop to 166 FPS, which is still highly playable on high refresh rate monitors. The Ultra preset manages an average of 122 FPS. The delta between High and Ultra at 1440p is 44 FPS, which is a significant jump, indicating that the Ultra preset introduces a heavy computational load.

At 4K (3840x2160), the performance scales down as expected. The Low preset delivers an average of 161 FPS, which is impressive for 4K. The Medium preset drops to 117 FPS on average, with a minimum of 100 FPS and a maximum of 135 FPS. The High preset yields 88 FPS. The Ultra preset falls to 64 FPS, which is the only sub-60 FPS territory in the entire dataset. The data reveals that the performance scaling from High to Ultra at 4K is severe, with a 24 FPS reduction, while the scaling from Medium to High is a 29 FPS reduction. The most efficient settings at 4K are clearly Medium or Low.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is the primary performance engine in this combo. The GPU’s benchmark data shows a Passmark G3D score of 39,650 and an average benchmark score of 79,842, placing it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals in this database are compute-oriented cards like the NVIDIA Tesla P100 variants, which are not gaming-focused, highlighting the RTX 5090’s raw compute dominance. The card’s 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus provides a memory bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s, which is more than sufficient for Outriders’ textures and assets at any resolution.

The GPU’s clock speeds are a base of 2017 MHz and a boost of 2407 MHz, which allows it to sustain high throughput. The 170 RT cores and 680 tensor cores are part of the Blackwell 2.0 architecture, though the measured FPS data does not indicate whether ray tracing is enabled. The card’s FP32 performance of 104.8 TFLOPS is directly reflected in the high frame rates observed. The fact that the 4K Low preset hits 161 FPS and 1080p Low hits 242 FPS shows the sheer rasterization power of the GB202 chip.

The GPU’s role is so dominant that the performance deltas between settings are entirely attributable to its workload. For instance, the 4K Ultra preset at 64 FPS is likely limited by the GPU’s pixel and texture fill rates under extreme load, while the 4K Medium preset at 117 FPS shows a more balanced load. The GPU is the clear bottleneck in this system, as no CPU-related metric (like thread count or cache) appears to be limiting the FPS at any tested setting. The RTX 5090 is the definitive factor in this combo’s high ranking.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12600KF serves as the supporting processor in this configuration, and its role is to provide enough instructions per cycle to keep the RTX 5090 saturated. The CPU has 10 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz. Its benchmark scores are solid: a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 23,391 and a single-core score of 3,302. The Geekbench single-core score is 2,157. These numbers indicate strong single-threaded performance, which is critical for game logic and draw calls.

The CPU’s cache hierarchy includes an L3 cache of 20 MB shared, which is adequate for feeding the GPU. The benchmark results show that the CPU is not a limiting factor, as the frame rates scale predictably with GPU settings. At 1080p, where the CPU load is proportionally higher, the combo still achieves 171 FPS on Ultra, proving that the Alder Lake architecture handles the game engine efficiently. The processor’s percentile rank of 79 among all CPUs is lower than the GPU’s 92, but the nearest rival data shows it is competitive with the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, which is often considered a gaming-focused chip.

The i5-12600KF’s 20 PCIe Gen 4 lanes provide sufficient bandwidth for the RTX 5090’s PCIe 5.0 interface, though the card runs at PCIe 5.0 x16. The CPU’s memory support for DDR4 and DDR5, with a dual-channel bus, suggests that memory bandwidth is not a constraint in this pairing. The data indicates that the CPU’s average benchmark score of 27,799 places it just 0.3% behind the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, meaning that in CPU-bound scenarios, this combo would perform nearly identically to that alternative. In Outriders, the CPU’s job is to maintain a stable frame pacing, and the minimum FPS figures at the Medium preset (e.g., 183 FPS at 1080p) confirm that it does so without stuttering.